


Visions In Smoke

by CaesiumDressing



Series: Huxloween stuffs [18]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Fortune Telling, M/M, Visions, actual space magic, witchery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-18
Updated: 2016-10-18
Packaged: 2018-08-23 07:37:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8319388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaesiumDressing/pseuds/CaesiumDressing
Summary: A young Armitage Hux experiences a vision at a harvest festival.Written for Huxloween Prompt: Witches





	

Far away from Arkanis young Armitage Hux was biting into some strange fruit he’d bought at a vendor’s stall at the harvest festival on some backwater planet. He had simultaneously been excited for tonight and dreading it. Excited, because the festival was always enjoyable with the games and foods and various attractions; dreading it because tomorrow would be the day that he would be going off to school. He wanted to be an officer, to impress his father, but he also had heard all of the rumors about the things the cadets did. While he would never admit it to a soul he was nervous.

Armitage wandered from booth to booth, trying his hand at each of the games. He’d managed to score a bullseye at one of the marksmanships games and was handed a stuffed orange cat. He snorted and tucked the thing into a satchel he was carrying. What a nonsense thing for a boy to have. He told himself that he would leave it with his mother when he went off-world tomorrow morning.

It began getting late, almost time for the explosives show. That was always his favorite part, the bombast and the bright colors lighting up the clouds. It was like starships locked in vicious conflict; brilliant, violent, beautiful. He wondered if some day he’d be able to wield power like that. The power to light up the whole sky in flaming red, so bright that when it faded all that was around you was blackness. He sighed, he could only hope so.

As he turned to move closer to the square for a better view he caught sight of a booth he’d never seen before. He’d been to this festival every year since he and his father had landed here. He moved closer.

It wasn’t really a booth, not in the sense of an open air counter with toys and games or various festival foods. It was a tent, in truth, an old grey tent hung with colored gems and trailing fine chain. As he moved around the tent toward what he could only assume was the front he caught sight of a sign.

“Maij’s Fortune Telling,” he read aloud. He’d never heard of a Maij, even less so of fortune tellers on this planet. He moved closer, trying to peer into the tent without actually stepping in.

“Come in, child,” a cracked and dry sounding voice came drifting from inside the tent. “I can sense the curiosity in your heart.” Armitage started, standing ramrod straight. There was no way the person sporting that voice had seen him. He heard a brittle chuckle.

“No Armitage Hux, I cannot see you. But I can hear you,” the voice spoke, no closer than it had been before, but sounding slightly warmer, almost fond. Armitage could still see nothing through the flap. He steeled his nerves and took a breath, stepping up to the tent and pushing the flap aside.

He stepped into the low lit space and peered around. From the corners of the small tent came smoke scented with faraway spices that swirled in the disturbed air. All around the beams of the tent hung talismans, some looking like bleached bones and feathers, others looking to be woven  or wound from textiles.  In the center of this all, at a small table on a blood red rug sat a hunched hooded figure. The being looked up at him, a glimmer in its silver eyes.

“Armitage Hux,” the voice cooed, pale hands coming to push back the hood to reveal the ashen face of a female humanoid. Her hair was as white as ice and braided with ribbons of blue and grey, the colors of ice and snow. “I am glad you found my tent.”

“How do you know my name?” Armitage asked, trying to keep his voice from cracking. He wasn’t frightened of this old woman, not in the least. She nodded and hummed, closing her eyes for a moment.

“Your name came to me in a vision. I was compelled to come to this festival to find you. There are big things in your future, young man,” she said, opening her eyes again and resting her chin on a balled fist. Her other hand came up and made a gesture. “Come closer, have a seat. Our time is short,” she said. Armitage hesitated a moment.

“Don’t be frightened,” she whispered, eyes sparkling in the gloom.

“I’m not afraid,” Armitage sneered, not at all confident. He moved forward anyway and sat in the chair across from the old woman. She made a humming sound and placed her hand palm up on the table.

“Give me your hand,” she said, not quite a demand but certainly not a question. Armitage reached out and gingerly placed his hand palm down on hers. She turned it and leaned in with her other hand coming up to tracing lines like a sigil. She hummed and hemmed.

“I see,” she murmured.

“What do you see?” Armitage whispered, being taken over by the mystic atmosphere of the room. She raised her eyes to meet his.

“They must sell nice skin cream here,” she said, smirking, but not letting go of his hand. Armitage let out a huff and rolled his eyes.

“I thought you were reading my palm,” he stated, not pulling his hand away but giving her a sharp look.

“I don’t read palms, child,” she said, turning his palm over and gripping his hand. “But I do bring visions. Relax and let it take you,” suddenly her voice was far away and the tent became an empty black space. The world tilted and Armitage toppled from his chair and to the floor. He sat and looked around.

“Hello?” he called out, panic rising. He looked around; there were no seams to the tent anymore, no leaking lines of light slipping from the edges. His breathing quickened and he pushed himself to his knees. Suddenly there was a growling hum and three lines of light in the shape of a cross came into existence just ahead of him. In the crimson glow he could see that the holder of the light was a boy not much older than him with dark hair and eyes that shined in the dark. The boy paid no attention to Armitage, but stared at the glowing thing in his hand.

“You will be Kylo Ren.” A gravelly voice shook the air around them.

“Yes, Master,” the boy whispered and the light was extinguished.

Suddenly the area in front of him filled with stars and the area illuminated. Under him was a durasteel floor, and in front of him was a transparisteel viewport. He was on a star destroyer. A few yards ahead of him stood two figures, one in an officer’s uniform, the other cloaked in black.

“This galaxy will be ours,” the uniformed officer said, his said in a clipped core world accent. He sounded stern, but not unhappy. The man turned his face toward the cloaked figure; it was Armitage’s face, older yes, but him none the less.

“Yes,” the figure beside him wheezed in a mechanical voice. Armitage’s vision went black again.

He felt a breeze across his face, and he blinked. He was lying on the ground in the forest just outside of the fair grounds. He glanced around. The tent was gone, as was the old woman who he’d been speaking to. He sat up, rubbing his eyes.

An explosion rocked the sky and he looked up. The show was starting. From here he could see the fireworks bursting far above, bright balls of red light. His mind wandered back to the holder of the light and the men on the bridge. He pushed himself to his feet, brushing the dirt from his pants. He convinced himself that he must have fainted from exertion and he hadn’t been brought a vision by a strange offworlder.

As he packed that night to leave in the morning he pulled the stuffed cat from his satchel and lifted it to take it to his mother. He paused; it smelled like the old woman’s tent, the smoke having permeated it even though it was in his bag. He turned and stuffed the thing in his suitcase, so he would never forget that what he saw was real. The galaxy would be his to rule.

**Author's Note:**

> Come over to my [tumblr](http://garbageismydomain.tumblr.com/) if you want to say hi!


End file.
